Gyu Shige — Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City

😥 Poor management, huge potential

Positives: The food tasted really nice! We were very impressed. The atmosphere is nice; lots of tables, good decorations and comfortable seating.

Negatives: Service was very poor. The initial waiter who took the order was great, but for food and drinks to come out, we waited a long time - seated for close to 2 hours when we received the final dish. Considering all but one dish was just raw meat and didn't need cooking time, this was disappointing. A dish we ordered (from another waiter) 2 minutes after our initial order was never put through. When it was re-ordered, it took almost 30 minutes to come out, despite them knowing about the issue. Except the first dish, we had to remind the staff about all other dishes. They came out one by one, every 20 minutes or so. I don't mind if the restaurant is busy, but we observed multiple tables who arrived after us (and had 4 instead of 2 people) being served many more cooked and raw dishes than us - and they even managed to leave an hour before us too. Portions are small. We had 3 tiny scallops each. The meat sets are also fairly small (1-2 people max, but you'll need other dishes). It would be better to offer sets with more quantity, even if at a higher price. Refer to pictures for sizes. There were 4-5 instances of glasses breaking (dropping on the floor) from the bar counter next to where families including kids were seated and walking. On one instance, more than 5 glasses were dropped at once. Nobody was cleaning the glasses on the counter. Scheduling issues. Booked in person for 6.45pm. On arrival, we were advised that the table wasn't ready and to come back in at least 10 minutes. On return, several tables were available but very few customers had left. We were told that due to the experience, we would be given a 15% discount on our bill by the supervisor, as he was aware of the problems we faced.. but sadly the bill didn't show any discount, and one of the menu item prices was incorrect, so we had to wait another ~25 minutes for them to check this, plus redo the removal of wet tissues we didn't use (despite mentioning this the first time when checking the bill).

Opportunities: If unsure on availability, tell the customer that you will call them when the table is ready, to avoid missing expectations. Process orders straight after receiving them, at the table. Trying to remember orders in a busy environment while juggling different tasks will only invite problems. Prepare food orders based on when they are received, as best as possible. Consider having staff check in with tables to make sure they received all of their dishes. Staff at all levels need better training. There are plenty of staff, they just aren't working as efficiently as they could be. Knowledge may also be an issue - we were told that weight for one of the meat sets also included the weight of the bowl of salt (which was decoration?). Consider putting meat quantities on the menu, and adding S/L sizes as an option.

Overall if you're not in a rush, don't mind waiting a little bit longer for your food to arrive and don't mind the higher price point, I would definitely still recommend the restaurant. The food itself is great, and I think with new or retrained management and staff, this could turn into a 5 star experience in the future. I plan to return in the future and will post an update if...

OMG, what a disaster of a restaurant. Ordered Wagu 5, USDA Prime, fresh oysters, scallops x 2, shitake, eggplant, crab salad, Sapporo, milk tea, and kimchi. Let the disaster begin: Before the drinks or the salad, or even the full table settings are set, the USDA prime came out. Note to management: please provide bowls/plates, chopsticks and/or forks/spoons first; then the drinks, then the salad, then the fresh oysters, then finally the main course. Had to keep asking the waiter for my beer like 3 times, or 4. Salad never came. Only 1 scallops order came instead of 2, milk tea never came (30 min later after repeated inquiry, they said they ran out), both the Wagu 5 and USDA Prime were subprime, chewy.

Want to know the worst part? The fresh oysters came out last, again after repeated inquiry. Oh wait, that's not the worst part, of course they tried to charge us for everything, LOL. But they corrected it after our disputes.

Horrible management team, all the waiters/waitresses are totally disorganized. Will I be back?...

We got here around 13.30 and the place was not that packed, considering we did not make a reservation in advance. We ordered a set of grill and hotpot, the grill came with a set of small ribs, beef and veggies for wrapping and fresh one for eating as well. The veggies set was said to be home grown organically in Dalat, which might be true because they tasted so good and crunchy. We had to ordered another extra set of mixed meat and veggies though as the included meat and veggies was not enough for us. The hotpot came with a plate of thinly sliced beef and veggies set and noodles as well. The hotpot was good, the broth was really umami. The only thing is that in between sets and changing to hotpot, the staffs were kind of slow so we had a few moments where we just sat there waiting...